Crystalized Munchkinry - Act VI - Chapter 67 (Patreon)

After he made sure that nothing had escaped into the alternate dimensions where the Simurgh had opened the portals, he immediately began going over what had happened.

This attack had gone beyond anything he had imagined, simulated, or predicted. He always knew that the Simurgh was somehow special among the Endbringers, but this was beyond his expectations. The worst part was that while he knew some of the goals behind the events the Simurgh set up, he was pretty sure he had missed at least as many.

People were now aware of Taylor, her capabilities, and if they looked deeper, he was certain most intelligence agencies would realize she was invisible to Thinkers. Most of them would be content to simply watch and maybe make plans, but he knew at least the CUI would want to do something about someone like that.

At least, that was what he had gleaned from their parahumans when he took over their Shards. Individually, they were not the greatest powers, but with their training and cooperation, people were smart to fear them.

So, in the name of distraction, when he took them over, he slowly loosened the control they had over the parahumans' minds. He could have taken all of them out, but he was certain the CUI would interpret that as a declaration of war. At least his prediction software, augmented by all the new Shards he had been taking over, calculated a 77% chance of armed conflict.

There was also an over 80% chance of them acting against Taylor and Dragon out of fear of their superiority. With this small action, all of those numbers dropped below ten percent.

Maybe some internal strife would lead to something better?

In Europe, their biggest enemy was the Gesellschaft, who for obvious reasons viewed America as a greater enemy than anyone else in Europe. So, to make sure nobody would suspect America, he took over the Shard behind the Three Blasphemies and set them against the Gesellschaft leadership. According to his predictions, that would either eliminate the neo-Nazis or push them hard enough to figure out how to eliminate the three monsters. Oddly enough, the odds were around 50% for either outcome.

Of course, the Shards in his Network had already capitalized on this and set up another betting pool on who would win.

Sadly, the Simurgh was much harder to distract. He hoped the events he had set in motion would disrupt whatever prediction she was working from, but he was not confident.

However, he still had to delve deeper into Eidolon's Shard.

Maybe he would find an answer there…

He also took time to review the diagnostics of Taylor's power.

Luckily, this battle had provided enough data to refine her power even further. He improved her control over her sensing ability, adding some much-needed clarity to what she "saw" and increasing her resistance against areas affected by warped space.

With so many Thinkers present at the battle, or observing remotely, he had also gathered enough data about Thinker defenses and how they fared against different Shards. He added some improvements there as well, while internally panicking after finding a ping from the Faerie Queen's Shard during his review of the logs. A quick check showed that Ciara had watched the battle using one of her powers.

He increased the priority of dealing with her on his to-do list, then continued with his upgrades for Taylor.

He also took the blind spot-generating effect he had added to Taylor and enveloped the entire city of Brockton Bay with it. People already knew Taylor was a blind spot. Why not make them believe she could extend the same effect to the area around her?

Though he tied the effect to a day/night cycle, making it appear slightly more organic. It would contract somewhat at night and expand again when morning came.

He couldn't wait to see how people reacted to it…

He also went over the parahumans who had taken part in the battle and those remaining in the city, especially Vista.

Thanks to the laugh he had gotten from the girl, he arranged another dream for her, this time about how to fire compressed air into balls using her power.

But overall, he turned off the conflict drive for all the parahumans who were covered by his expanded blind spot effect and allowed some Shards limited contact with their hosts, though nothing beyond what they had access to before he took control.

Much rejoicing was had, especially by Impetus and Altilium. They were eager to finally connect with their hosts (properly for the first time, in Altilium's case). The rest were also happy to varying degrees. It was finally time to apply all the planned – and some unplanned – upgrades to the powers.

For Assault and Battery, he upgraded their entire powers, increasing their potency and improving their recharge times. He even allowed Assault to envelop weapons with his power, with an added caveat: they would receive an additional increase in power if they were fighting alongside each other. He felt that suited them perfectly.

Velocity was rather a one-trick pony with his super-speed, so he added a Brute ability that activated when he was not out of phase with reality. That would allow the hero to take down opponents much more easily.

For the upcoming hero, Dauntless, he added a special awareness of his power. As of now, the parahuman could sense how charged his items were and how much additional charge they needed to reach the next level. He also increased his limit of empowered items and decreased the recharge time.

Maybe this would allow him to become the powerhouse he was meant to be.

For the dutiful Miss Militia, he simply allowed the woman to fully dismiss the energy constructs she created, allowing her to blend in better with the populace. For upgrades, he added a minor Brute ability and the ability to use her energy to create weapons and personal armor. He also altered the Noctis aspect of her power. Instead of reliving past events ad nauseam, it would become a restorative sleep, allowing her to recover from wounds faster by increasing her regeneration.

There was no need to torture the woman with images of her past…

For Triumph, he simply improved the man's healing factor and Brute abilities while adding echolocation to his repertoire. He played around with the idea of giving him some kind of precognition power just for the amusement of it, but in the end, decided against it.

Armsmaster received the biggest changes.

The man deserved them.

He, of course, added the Brute package, slightly stronger than usual, along with enhanced cognition that granted the man a minor Thinker ability by increasing his memory capacity and recall speed. He completely removed the Tinker compulsion and allowed Efficiency to provide Armsmaster with designs that required little to no maintenance. He also ensured that Efficiency would slowly provide information about Tinker technology, allowing the man to gradually understand the principles behind it.

Though, despite being an asshole, he made sure the first design the hero received was a plan for robotic body doubles that could act as workshop assistants, along with an automatic robotic beard-grooming device.

For the Wards, he went a little more low-key for now.

Aegis got better control over his power, faster flight speed, and an increased healing rate. Kid Win lost the compulsion, and he updated the Shard's data banks with much more kid-friendly inventions. When he graduated from the Wards, he would exchange those for more lethal devices.

Vista got her dream, but he also added a slight healing factor that would coincidentally remove any scars on her body.

For Clockblocker, he was a little stumped about what he should do at first, but then, while casually browsing through his power and idea lists, he figured it out. He set it so that the young man could freeze things in place by touch or slow things down within an area. The slowing effect would depend on the area's size and how many parahumans were inside it. Of course, he could exclude those he wanted and only affect those he didn't.

Gallant got a healed Shard with much better control over his blasts, a much more detailed sensing power, and, just for kicks, a Tinker ability that would allow him to maintain any Tinker device he was using.

He could have, of course, given them powers beyond imagination, but he still wanted to maintain a small amount of secrecy. No matter how impossible that was with these changes. He was pretty sure the PRT and the Protectorate would lose their collective minds when they figured out what he had done.

Oh well, a little M/S screening never hurt anyone…

He also upgraded New Wave.

For Amy, he simply improved her clone powers and increased the robustness of her brain, because the extensive use of that ability in the medical hall had exhausted the girl mentally like nothing else.

Shaper also received the Shard responsible for Nilbog, slaved to her, so she could study it and ensure nothing like that man would happen in the foreseeable future.

Vicky was already pretty powerful after her 'second trigger,' but Fragile One kept nagging him until he agreed to give the 'best Host' something.

In the end, he appeased the adorable Shard by giving Glory Girl powers similar to her mother's, though much more limited. She could create gloves and shoes from the same hard light her mother used, increasing her damage output. Of course, he made sure the hard light projection shone with golden and silver light.

Only the shiniest shiny for Fragile One and Glory Girl!

Shielder got slightly stronger blasts, but he mostly concentrated on increasing the capabilities of the boy's shields. He made them bigger, stronger, and much more flexible. He also added an ability that allowed Shielder to 'buff' people with his shields. Those shields would envelop the entire person and remain active depending on how much power he used when creating them.

For Laserdream, he changed her shield so it was always active around her, just like her cousin's, while increasing its potency and improving the versatility of her lasers, adding one that would induce hallucinations in the target.

Of course, both of them also received a slight Brute enhancement.

Flashbang received a flying power (it was embarrassing seeing him carried around by his family) by allowing him to skate on the light balls he created, and he improved his control over them.

Manpower received the ability to fly and greater control over the electricity he used.

Lady Photon received a marginal increase in power and an ability to 'buff' her family members (blood relations) with shields as long as she was near them.

As for Carol, he added the ability to create wings out of the same material she used for her weapons, allowing her to fly. And when she turned into the ball, she could also create miniature wings on it, like a snitch, giving her greater control.

To make sure he eliminated the reminder of her trigger event, he removed the sensory deprivation while she was in ball form, adding limited area vision around the ball.

It wouldn't solve everything, but it would help…

He also took some time to improve poor Cardea's power. A Tinker working with her had provided the armor, so he gave Cardea her own Tinker power, focused on power armor designed for healing.

Maybe that would help the woman forget what she saw.

Probably not, but one can hope…

While the parahumans were fighting against the abominations formerly known as Nilbog, there was enough traffic on the Network for him to infiltrate the Shards of the entire Triumvirate.

He used the time to settle in, open a secure port through the Shard defenses for communication, and search for the connection to Path to Victory.

After a quick look, he found it. He immediately set up his usual equipment to spoof it.

That was finished, so it was time to get to the important work…

Just as Rebecca resigned herself to dealing with the mountains of paperwork that had accumulated on her desk, her computer pinged peculiarly. It took her prodigious mind only a fraction of a second to remember that the sound indicated an emergency meeting.

With extreme speed, she locked down her office, activated her automatic out-of-office status, and practically threw herself through the portal that appeared without her prompting.

She arrived in the usual meeting room, where she was met by Doctor Mother with a worried expression as she tended to a disheveled Contessa. Numberman was sitting nearby, blearily drinking coffee from a giant mug while staring at nothing.

A second later, Eidolon also arrived, without of his costume.

"What is going on?"

"Indeed, what was the emergency?"

Doctor Mother turned towards them and, with a serious expression, began to speak.

"As of midnight, all of Brockton Bay became one enormous blind spot. The same type that covered Serenity, Lux Arcana, and Dragon."

"That's… not the best news, but that doesn't constitute an emergency, Doctor."

"Indeed, Contessa asked me to call you here."

Hearing that, she turned towards the convalescing woman, waiting for an answer. Contessa took a deep, shuddering breath and started speaking while staring at an empty patch of wall.

"The path is gone…"

"What?" Eidolon shouted, bewildered. "What do you mean it's gone?"

"Simple," continued Contessa in the same voice, still looking at the wall. "The moment the blind spot appeared, the path shattered. I can't see any way to reach our goal."

"While not as much as for Contessa here, my predictions were also disrupted," added Numberman quietly. "I saw some things… but…"

"But?" asked Rebecca with an arched eyebrow.

"I don't understand yet. Something happened. Something beyond the enormous blind spot. But I don't know what, or understand it yet…"

A terse silence followed as everyone contemplated the information before Alexandria finally spoke.

"It must be Serenity. The blind spots started with her. We must get ahold of her."